. >> middle-class america, affluent america. >> reporter: and the reason cane-willis says, has to do with another more high-profile epidemic that has been spreading among affluent teens. >> people start using prescription pain pills. when those are difficult to ge, they switch to heroin. >> reporter: prescription drug use among kids has gotten a lot of attention. for good reason. a recent survey shows 24% of high school students -- that's more than five million kids -- have abused highly addictive medications like oxycontin. that's a 33% increase in just five years. on the street those pills can be spencive. as much as $80 each. so increasingly kids are turning to a cheaper, more powerful alternative: heroin. a bag can cost as little as $10. >> we see this intertwining epidemic growing. i think that we will see more heroin users. >> reporter: users like john. he told me he was doing heroin before four months before he knew it was heroin. >> reporter: like many parents, his mother caroline never saw it coming. >> we were the quintessential american family: baseball and hockey, boy sco